Education

Prize-winning journalist tells UNC-Chapel Hill she's not teaching without tenure

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has informed University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officials that she has no intention of starting work there next week unless the university grants her tenure.

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Nikole Hannah-Jones
By
Matthew Burns
, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has informed University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill officials that she has no intention of starting work there next week unless the university grants her tenure.

Hannah-Jones, a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and a New York Times reporter, was hired in April as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the university's Hussman School of Journalism and Media. She won the Pulitzer, a Peabody Award and a so-called "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for "The 1619 Project" about slavery's impact on America.

Although university officials recommended her for tenure, and most of the Knight Chair faculty positions nationwide funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation are tenured, the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees has never voted on her tenure application. Instead, she was offered a five-year contract, at a salary of $180,000 a year.

Her lawyers on Monday sent a letter to Vice Chancellor and General Counsel Charles Marshall and two other attorneys stating that Hannah-Jones is rescinding the contract, which she believes the university entered in bad faith, but will not withdraw her application for tenure.

The letter was obtained and first reported by NC Policy Watch, an arm of the left-leaning North Carolina Justice Center.

University officials told Hannah-Jones that her tenure vote would come in November 2020, with an expected start date in January, according to the letter. When that didn't happen, officials said to expect a tenure vote in January, but again, that never took place.

"To this date, she has not received an explanation from UNC as to why tenure has been withheld from her," the letter states. "Without full knowledge about why she had been denied a vote on her tenure package, Ms. Hannah-Jones entered into the fixed-term agreement ... in an effort to minimize the monetary damages she incurred, as well as the damage to her reputational standing."

The tenure controversy has sparked outrage among UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty and alumni, as well as journalists nationwide. Supporters suggest she's coming up against resistance from power brokers in North Carolina who don't like the 1619 Project.
Although top Republican lawmakers have denied exercising any influence over the tenure decision, Walter Hussman Jr., who donated $25 million to UNC-Chapel Hill's journalism school, expressed concerns to university officials about "possible and needless controversy" if Hannah-Jones were hired.

"There's a huge credibility problem, and I'm afraid it's because people – the journalism – has moved away from objectivity, impartiality, fairness, giving both sides," Hussman recently told WRAL News.

Hannah-Jones is concerned such meddling will continue to affect her bid for tenure, according to her attorneys.

"Ms. Hannah-Jones cannot trust that the University would consider her tenure application in good faith during the period of the fixed-term contract," the letter states. "In light of the information which has come to her attention since that time, she cannot begin employment with the University without the protection and security of tenure."

The "inferior terms of employment" she was offered is a result of discrimination against her, the letter continues. Her lawyers have previously said she is considering a possible federal lawsuit against UNC-Chapel Hill.

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